Effective tweeting – some things you didn’t know

Do you ever wonder why some great twitter accounts have thousands and thousands of followers, while others have less than 100 – even if they’re both posting interesting tweets and tweeting consistently every day? Social media marketinghas everything to do with strategy, consistency and content, but it also takes a few tips and tricks to really boost the engagement you receive. Here are a few tips for effective tweeting that we’ve picked up along the way:

Tweet when everyone’s working

Many clients think their target audience would rather read, tweet and engage during their free time, but studies prove otherwise. Studies have shown that tweets get a much higher engagement (up to 30% more) when they’re sent during office hours. Your target audience might not be surfing the internet all day long, but many people keep their Tweetdecks open throughout the day and regularly scan their feeds, so it’s worth your while to send tweets during office hours.

Don’t use all your characters

You only have 140 characters on Twitter, but this doesn’t mean you have to use all of it. Many people try to squeeze in as much as they can – even if it means using text shorthand like writing “B4” instead of “before” – but this could be counterproductive. People like to comment and add-on to what someone else is saying, so if your tweets are short, people are more likely to re-tweet and add their own two cents to the conversation (which is exactly what you want).

Conversations vs. content

It’s important to have conversations with your followers and the people you are following, but you also need to make sure you’re sharing content. Tweets with links are much more likely to get re-tweeted, so spend some time everyday writing blog posts or finding interesting articles to link to.